The priority theme for CSW 55 (2011) was "Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work."

Science and technology are increasingly major contributing elements for the achievement of development goals: eradicating poverty, fighting disease, improving education, achieving food security, addressing environmental problems. They are also a means for countries to improve productivity and competitiveness and to create decent work opportunities.

The Beijing Platform for Action emphasized the importance of both equal access for women and girls to education and training, as well as employment, as essential aspects of a global policy framework necessary to achieve women’s human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It stressed the elimination of all impediments to women’s full employment and decent work to enable women to attain their economic potential and the full benefits of their efforts, including access to labour-saving technologies. It also emphasized creating an enabling environment for women and girls, particularly by the removal of many forms of existing gender bias, to help advance opportunities for women and girls in science and technology.

Since 1997 when the CSW last reviewed education and training – one of the twelve critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action – the CSW has included access to and participation in science and technology and access to decent work as cross-cutting concerns in its deliberations and outcomes. Furthermore, it has acknowledged the critical interplay of science and technology to full employment and decent work and the achievement of the Beijing Platform for Action goals of women’s rights and gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls. Some issues raised have been: increasing equal and effective use of information and communication technologies for women and girls; assisting women-owned businesses in benefiting from technological innovations; supporting the role of women’s expertise in creating environmentally sound technologies; fostering the participation of women in the development of new technologies including design, application, monitoring and evaluation.

Factors limiting women’s access and use of technology may vary greatly from country to country: lack of education and training, lack of financial resources, unequal burden of care giving, and gender bias of many kinds. Science and technology skills can offer opportunities for a broad range of well-paid employment, but gender stereotyping and discriminatory practices have resulted in women being grossly underrepresented in these fields, although lack of adequate gender data, particularly around issues of employment in science and research, hamper efforts both to evaluate the causes of the problem and to measure progress. Eliminating all barriers to women’s and girls’ access and full participation in every aspect of science and technology will further the potential of each country to meet its international commitments to women’s rights as well as achieve its development goals.

For more information, contact NGO-CSW NY at (212) 867-6161 or info@ngocsw.org